since two thousand and one. russia has more. this is now considered major threat to national security. service. the head of the russian federal drug control service straight after his graduation he served in the. state security organizations starting as an operative and eventually he was promoted to deputy director of the federal security service throughout. the administration of the russian president

and the russian president in two thousand and eight he became the head of the russian federal drug control service during one of his recent news conferences he said that there are more than twenty four thousand registered. but the actual number could be. up to two point. being done in order to. thank you very much for coming to. drug production in afghanistan when due to begin during the american invasion or perhaps even the soviet one. after the syrian. troops. one government. first there were.

none there was. old those changes were violent. and it was this military and political tension that prompted some poppy cultivation. but is also in fact history shows that drug production usually follows military and political tensions. but it almost. well you personally participated in the military actions in afghanistan in the eighty's and can compare the soviet methods with today's american methods. to use a more effective do you think it's. frankly i didn't participate in the military actions directly but you could observe them right. i was an h.r. advisor but i certainly had an opportunity to see the way we have gained. the way

in the quest for military operations and military achievements. i would make a distinction here because the u.s. and nato led international security assistance force in afghanistan as a mandate of the u.n. security council. as of the war on terror. they often say today that this is no longer a war against terrorists so unfortunately you do more and more becomes a war against insurgents. he actually saw troops were also blamed for this fighting insurgents rather than establishing order yes there were such meetings today. in your opinion what is the most efficient way of fighting drugs. say you know. plain physical eradication which is the reason i'm asking is because i recall that once on obey me

at. the head of security forces in a big region and he said it's impossible to do away with drugs of people cultivate them it's impossible practically. as soon as the communist rule was over and free markets and the enter panetta ship became a new reality right away pharmacy poppy everywhere if we cut down their poppy their families would die so there's nothing we can do for them is the situation similar in afghanistan. you know there are many many. illegal drug trade on the one and. non-medical use of drugs on the other but is it that i should be easier to master it so loosing things that only good that it's necessary to reduce the amount of publicity rugs on the market and at the same time the demand for drugs should also be diminished among the population so these approaches have more recorded in three so-called anti-drug conventions doctored by the us. one of the

priorities in this struggle is already crops which can be used for production but. as a matter of fact this political priority was set at the un general assembly session in one thousand nine hundred ninety eight somebody said and it was confirmed in two thousand and nine when the general assembly had been considering to work talk the un commission on north korea drugs. unfortunately afghanistan extremely ineffective eradication of crops used for drug production and there are no results there. less than three percent of the drug czar destroyed. compare this with colombia where both seventy percent of drug plantations are destroyed annually you see the fact totally different social. well in fact russia is not only

a transit zone for drugs in recent years russia has become the largest market for afghan heroin spotlights me there were reports. again this is the. producer ninety two percent of global open poppy is cultivated here his market is very good at sixty five billion dollars involved fifty million addicts which one hundred thousand die each year. apiece to be haunted by the florida drop trade couldn't to the federal drug control service all one hundred and eighty have been drug cartels have been busy trafficking opiates to the russian federation truck control versions point out that most of the truck business is done and they have been provinces that are under the control of coalition forces and therefore in this zone over sponsibility in the since the u.s. led incursion began a stand has seen

a sharp increase in part because. the drug has spread through neighboring to dawn and other central asian countries making neighboring russia particularly vulnerable to a last year's un report no worse than seventy tons of heroin were trafficked to russia in two thousand and eight that's three times more than to the u.s. and canada together the smuggling of it and opiates has been few and diction then drug use alone trafficking routes over the last ten years the quantity of truck addicts in russia skyrocketed to unfold and now claims up to forty thousand lives only. if you just said afghans are very slack in fighting against the poppy plantations and it's hardly possible to eradicate much poppy using just such week as we've just seen. but here's another thing those farmers from all feel sorry for drug dealers they just provide for their families because poppy is the most profitable crop to they sell it very cheap

to those who produce drugs why don't pharmaceutical companies buy it from them for as they are absolutely right about the fine. because these still drugs for making profit based on you. grew up. in southern afghanistan and that's where clashes take place and it's no accident here things like helmand which produces sixty five percent hill who's the world's aussie it has always been the richest province. the richest formers live in helmand it but it could climatic conditions near theory could. have the helmand river and there is a wonderful system of irrigation in other words they were needed money they were then wealthiest people and today this province has more drugs than any other place so the financial factor the need to make a living is not the key here. but probably they became even richer when they

started to cultivate poppy. they switched to poppy right but instead of getting richer they became poor deformities who grew up in the economy pushing my seem very little money by the way to prosper dropped last year it was ninety dollars in two thousand and eight and this year it cost sixty dollars if you mean wrong yes wrong while the price for herring has tripled in afghanistan if that does you understand that main beneficiaries here are not formers but there's no not producers dealers the ride is special those who deal with wholesale trade traffic the dealers know what to do so still i'd like to repeat my question which is why doesn't government buy this raw opium from pharma as. well if that is the video we just saw says if again it's ten producers and sixty five billion dollars worth of. what the former c.e.o. it is merely three hundred to three hundred in

a fifty million dollars. that the taliban is said to participate is one of the most acute participates only to organized resistance to foreign troops. the u.s. senate committee on foreign relations and the taliban earn seventy two one hundred fifty million dollars which is nearly zero point two percent of the overall drug production. so the corrupt afghan government is running this business is the afghan government is corrupt and it's not use for anybody by the way at the london conference on afghanistan it was said the level of corruption is extremely high and his country so this means they are involved in drug production. this means some government officials are involved in drug production and. we've asked during their can colleagues to provide us with information on those who are involved in this process both government officials and those who finance this illicit activity and profit from it is. he so what do the americans say. fortunately we haven't heard

from them yet why do we visited to washington in september and i met with gil can only call it was a high ranking official in the us administration i gave him a list of drug brands which are available in russia one hundred and seventy five brands and this means to around one hundred and seventy five of the border tori's in afghanistan producing drugs for russia. tens of ghana stance of organists how did you what about u.s. troops fighting against evil in afghanistan. despite. it's obvious that insurgency is evil no matter how you call it the way but what about drugs law are they evil to. keep the why don't americans fight against drugs well. i believe illicit drug production is absolute at least you will and the entire

international community has agreed with it. considering the amount of drugs produced their problem has gone beyond it ganesan long time ago. contraries you said it's russia europe is another big consumer. of the balkans. by the northern route why is the country so central asia and this southern route. all across the world by seas. head of the federal drug control spotlight will do that shortly will continue this interview in less than a minute so stay with us there will. be

a vote for bush. always adds by one vote for kerry but for kerry so the people that are going to be validating this machine can stand there all day long and vote for somebody and it will be right every time but the guy can walk up here and if he hits the right button. he can flip the boat that he took. a.

walk on back to spotlight i'm. reminded that of my guest today is he head of the russian federal drug control service. mr the north will begin talking about combating drug trafficking from afghanistan both to europe and russia that what i see in afghanistan itself some of the who do you count on what for some help it's in the pool in this matter and from the americans and their allies who are fighting the you will have got that with all the afghan government that is highly corrupted as you well know and say. look at the look at coole or is there no one you can count on there that i should. we count on setting up a wide anti-drug coalition. if that was used isn't there one today that is my views our efforts are not coordinated and the steps taken to really key

to drug production in afghanistan are insufficient because you know it's not a couple days or so let me clarify this but first of all the international community and the united nations in the first place should consolidate its efforts and acknowledges loose disgraceful phenomenon. produces twice as more sharing then the whole world. but he's avoided this phenomena needs to be classified as a threat to world peace and security. this is not the competence of the u.n. general assembly at the. competence of the u.n. security council unfortunately so for there has been only discussion no common stance has been worked out and when it is worked out an irrelevant resolution is adopted this will be a major step towards eliminating draws production of get his dad secondly the world

community including the u.n. security council issued and a mandate with each national security and stability assistance force that once the bills you can be there in a state that has become a drug manufacturer base and cook with no stability toll of course more so in our view. with a u.n. mandate that have taken up responsibility for afghanistan's future should take care of that when you start off so it will end the mandate should include iraq war meant that the military force use used to destroy production. companies and thirdly at the federal the fish and seal of the international programs assisting in afghanistan being competent threats the implementation of these programs is the answer to better security which is transparent control of the international community but is that if you put us but for example mr richard holbrooke says the

destroying poppy fields is to expand when you stand inefficient at the mall well there is no way you can be efficient if you are using methods that are clearly inefficient and you should see it in the middle like using a twig yes there are some very efficient methods like now pell. as you can see nothing much can be accomplished with a twig as for not home it's something i would hardly recommend of course however we curb besides our spurred by helicopters and aircraft to destroy plantations in colombia i don't this and i know this is the same way you destroy we it's these are substances called lifeless. incidentally mini for misuse is to eliminate weeds thomas thomas wife a top official of the u.s. department of state was in charge of trafficking become to narcotics program for afghanistan he's now retired says he has a point and it's would grind of life

a city with fingers before spring it on the weeds it's getting this substance it's not that harmful but it can be very efficient in eliminating plantations the thing that. i see this by the way it's a mystery of an off which let's now talk about drugs in russia. as far as i know drug consumption is on the rise in russia. despite the outstanding measures being taken but she what causes that demand to supply other afghan producers and dealers to blame or is it the situation in our country that generates the demand. turn mark first that the number of drug abusers has not been grown actually. the actual number of people but yes the number of drug consumers practically civilized scene two thousand or two thousand and one do it there are two that time the growth was basically exponential. what about the go through of course send its head in every

year well torrington still the current levels on acceptably high but the most because it's too many people who are english to enjoy good news look at the. that's the first point then there's another thing the composition of drug consumption in russia differs brigley from that in europe or in the united states. but the difference is ninety percent of former drug addicted patients use opulence from of ghana stamp haring first of all and according to the world health organization erin you see most. reparation that causes severe addiction pathological different vision of the personality which invariably leads to death in five or seven years. in other words russians same as with alcohol prefer strong things at this. yes we should admit but sharing consumption in our

country is huge for which there are two major causes first there is an external factor of afghanistan being a neighboring country producing an immense amount of narcotics but what you call one hundred in seventy five. doses and the year. we say you think the most important factor is important even main thing is there is supply right. you cannot produce heroin in russia as it's climatic conditions are not suitable why is your agency against a methadone treatment which has been adopted in many countries and proved effective russia has categorically against it. but i would question your last statement that it proved effective and there have been no confirmed clinical scientific tests what's more methadone addiction use more severe incidentally heroin intoxication is relieved in force indeed. methadone intoxication was forty

five days so it just said there have been no clinical tests. but then why is methadone use in many countries to treat drug addicts. there is such a therapy what is it based on so well it's a new us they have no federal regulation about this. well it varies from state to state right yes it varies from state to state as a matter of fact it's an experiment in russia we to conduct experiments on hand however our consolidated position is that methadone therapy is inefficient russia i'm sorry i just want. to say that ukraine belarus and the baltic states approved the use of methadone treatment our colleagues from these countries say the situation there changed for the worse and the number of drug addicts has grown. russia is known for its tough measures when it comes to them. there is much talk

about plans to introduce a compulsive treatment of drug addiction as it used to be back in the soviet times . it is also said that compulsive medical examination will be introduced to for instance of students is that true are you preparing such measures and you know it's not true by the way speaking of tough measures against narcotic trunks we are alleging that ford be kind in terms of the toughness and systemic character of measures taken against illegal drug trade in this budget which is a quantum about all the records that come behind who. you're open in the united states. the united states has a school act and anyone who sells something cool sir than three hundred feet or so from school are subject to responsibility for the two or three fold even if you mean sells drugs. not necessarily to children just as long as there's still

something there russian law serious responsibility stuart's if this was fully aware what he was going to sell obviously all the suspects say they were not aware yes we're compulsive treatment and as a head of the agency i can assure you with my full responsibility that we have no such plans it's got it it will be very little your recent campaign against spices. or herbal smoking blends caused quite a stir recently why did you choose to pay such an attention to them. well i have to admit it was not are can paint what i mean is it was not launched by the federal drug control service we're trying to work with the pope. so channel two staged new campaign but in reported about this problem rooted in our society. spices appeared in our markets no longer and became popular on this very quickly our legislation failed to quickly adapt itself to combine listing horrible smoking

blends among our kordic substances however now this decision has been made as you may know the spawn december thirty first governmental decree was adopted banning us that that was just selling off its herbal smoke out blends onto this thread all for your prime and old prosecution xmas it would be to see those at the will and was essentially your respondent to the situation yes you know i must see our thank you to the public a journalist when there is having drawn attention to the problem which eventually shouts prompt passing of the bills letters well thank you very much i can only hope you respond promptly to problems in the future because it's common knowledge that swindlers are often faster in their trades than those who combat them which would defeat them thanks to our systemic approach and political will thank you very much for being with us and just a reminder that my guest here in the studio today was think that even the head of the russian federal drug control said and that's it for the after of all of us here

will be back with more first time comments on what's going on in an outside rush until then stay on r.t. and take care.

destructive fall is still raging across central russia we don't means of people

dead although some restaurants in moscow from the acrid smoke has been choking the capital so dave. joined the group from the moscow region well before you the very latest talking the blaze is threatening the calm so. i'm stacy bit at the social moscow where a lighter hey it's paying to me air join me in a bit more. u.s. military experts claim israel is preparing a surprise attack on iran which washington will inevitably be dragged into the. capital is being wrongly of a by west mines a should we look at why jordan's young muslim is a shuffling tradition while turning to american dine is an english d.j. it's.

a very warm welcome see this is the line from moscow it sways of central russia also. still in flames with firefighters talking hundreds of new fires every day and it's likely to be several days before the scorching temperatures show any sign of cooling down we'll take you around some of the affected areas now. jacob reeves is in woodland in the mosque a region for a small stacie bit in its rise here in the center of the capital jacob do you first can you bring us up to date now from where you are you're sure well i'm actually standing right now in the remnants of what was once a fairly standard family home now there's just rubble that's being left here this is the bathroom where i'm standing and actually here is actually now just filled with tiles from the roof when it caves you don't self on the.